What's Left to Us
by TransientSound
Summary: Began as an introspective fic, now currently evolving. A look into the formative years of Nathan's life after Marni's demise.
1. Prologue

What's Left to Us

by soundarch

Category: Repo! The Genetic Opera

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There was happiness once. I think.

The sun used to shine and there were colors other than black and red and grey. Singing flitted through the air and her beautiful smiling face.

Beauty once lived here. Not anymore.

No more of that. Goodness can't live in the world of today. It is the endless chase of death, nipping at all our heels that make us stagger forward. The broken people desperately try to fix what they cannot grasp. Oh, we know we're broken it's why we grab at any quick fix dangled in front of us.

Genetic perfection, a sham and a lie that we all buy into, it's shoved in our faces and smeared across our eyes. It's infected everything, and there's no cure for it.

In this shattered world, I'll stagger on. I'll pick the pieces of this home and smash the jagged and mismatched together. I'll make the best of it for her, the sad little piece of you and me that got left behind.

I'll protect her from the rot, this stain that's covered the globe. I'll offer myself up instead, become so dirty and submerged in the blood and filth of the world. All so that she'll be untouched. She is my everything, and I won't lose this last piece of the happy picture that's been lost to us all.


	2. Morning Dream

Chapter 1

His eyes slowly opened and stared up at the ceiling of his room. He let out a breath, willing his heartbeat to go down.

He'd had so many nightmares already, he doesn't even startle awake anymore. The adrenaline ignored, he looks to his clock to make sure there's enough time to make breakfast before Shilo wakes up. Looking to the bed beside his, he sees his baby girl still sleeping soundly. She's glorious in her sleep, but it hurts to look at her at times. Especially in the morning when the sleep isn't quite gone yet and the similarities to Marni's face are so painfully apparent, even with Shilo so young.

Moving silently, he got up from the bed and slipped on his robe. Walking on light feet towards the door, he paused while taking a quick look at his daughter again. She shifted slightly under his gaze, frowning a little before her small face smoothed back into comfortable sleep.

Downstairs the coffee brewed, and Nathan found himself staring into the dark liquid. It had been 3 years, and he was waiting for the nightmare to end. This one though he didn't wake up from. He was a single father without a clue. He used to dream about mornings, back when things were better. Marni by his side, their child breaking the peaceful morning by running through the door and greeting them. His eyes slipped closed as the images came to his mind.

Red suddenly flashed across the fantasy. It twisted and darkened, and looking down he could see Shilo in his hands, crying and splattered red and pink, Marni on the table, dead and gone. His eyes snapped open at that, but he couldn't wipe that memory from his mind. He can never wipe that memory clean, and a small part of him doesn't want to.

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A/N:

So, a little short I know, but I couldn't stop poking at this. I normally write out where I want a fic to go, but this one seems to want to wing it. As I get a more solid picture of where this is going, it'll hopefully get longer but eh, only my muse knows. And personally I think it's rather old and slow right now and hopefully won't hit me with some huge sword or some such for writing this bit. Ciao.


	3. Special Day

Chapter 2

"Daddy?" The sweet voice reaches his ears as he nudges the door open with a foot, waking his little girl from her sleep.

"Good morning my angel," Nathan smiles warmly down at his girl. He sets down the tray laden with food on his own bed as he goes to Shilo's and gives her a light kiss on her forehead. "Time for breakfast now."

She beams up at him, her disposition sunny, despite the drabness of their surroundings. His heart clenches as he looks down at her. Probably the last light in his life, he couldn't bare thinking her gone from it. To disappear as smoke like so many other lives.

Stretching up her arms in a way that only a child could make graceful, he picked up the warmed up plate. "I'm hungry!" Almost to punctuate the statement, her stomach gave a light rumble. "See?"

Giving a light laugh, he leaned forward with the food. "Yes, I can certainly hear that precious. It's a special day today, so you get to have breakfast in bed. Open up now dear one." A fork with food piled on it followed his words.

"Ahh…" she intoned, delighting in her father feeding her himself. Usually he tried to get her to feed herself, however messily that ended up. It was a treat whenever he took it upon himself to do this for her. His hands were large, warm and were the steadiest things she'd ever known.

Chewing her prize happily, she smiled up at her father with hero worship in her eyes. Reaching up with one of his hands, he brushed back a few strands of dark hair behind her ears and stroked the soft skin on her cheek with his thumb. A flash of memory struck his mind and his hand stilled. He pulled back slowly his soft smile frozen on his face, but still there.

Oblivious to the change in her daddy, Shilo swallows her food and looks to the drink that he'd placed on the dresser. Instead of waiting for him to react to her needs, she started to rise from her cocoon of sheets and pillows. Her movement snapped Nathan into the present, and he quickly went to get the drink and helped her swallow it down.

"Do you need to go to work daddy?" the innocent question unknowingly twisting her father's heart.

"Not today sweetie." Nathan shifted the plate over, moving towards the headboard and encompassing Shilo with a long arm against his body. "It's your birthday today, and I made sure we wouldn't be disturbed by something as silly as work." His smile was just that much tighter at the mention of his job. He relaxed himself as he hugged her to him.

"Yay! Daddy's all mine today."

His arm tightened around her ever so slightly. "Yes dear heart, yours only, now and always."

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A/N:

Another short one, these seem to be more ficlets following these two around. Still no direction but I'm feeling a massive bunny stalking me so this might actually go on. Well, 'till next time.

Ciao.


End file.
